Claytons.... OUT OF AFRICA: March 2012

Kigali, Rwanda started out looking like a normal, developing city with neighborhoods of just about every socioeconomic level. We saw tribes in the outskirts, group huts, and cement homes....
in-between poorer areas and new, modern homes and buildings.

Always on the streets are the ever present motor cycles carrying either a family of 5 or bundles of food or garbage. (lots of Africans recycle garbage and sell it)

We also saw lots of beautiful fields and wide-open spaces along planted areas with different varieties of palms and foliage. Just like in Uganda, most of the roads and bricks were made of the deep red clay soil.

Everyone in the big cities clean the streets once each week and they are meticulously clean. I'm not sure of the origin of the city doing that. Perhaps is was an off-shoot from the 1994 post-genocide days to wash the blood from a land of murder and carnage. I don't know if that is the case, but if I lived there, I would certainly want to cleanse the land from those horrible times when 1 million men, women and children were brutally murdered in 100 days.

The church is not formally recognized in Rwanda but right now there is a lovely home - owned by Deseret International Charities - which is used as a base for Humanitarian work by the church in Kigali. It is quite a large home and we took a tour both inside and out. This is the front gate and the backyard terrace area where the Humanitarian missionaries will be planting crops to teach people some inportant survival skills

This is a view from the terraced hill and part of the backyard.

These two pieces of art hang inside the building. It was a bit strange for me to see them because you don't usually see art the the buildings in Africa. It has a way of disappearing. I hope that these pieces will remain hanging until the church is established legally and they can be part of a chapel there.

This dirt road out in front of the house will eventually be finished with a rock surface.

The view from the terrace shows a nice neighborhood except for the dirt road.
We ate dinner at a restaurant across the way which was very nice.

Elder and Sister Wilkes are a fun, happy Humanitarian missionary couple. We had a great time with them.

No amount of preparation was enough to prepare us for a few of the sites we saw in Rwanda. With the Wilkes, we traveled to two of the memorial church sites were thousands of the Tootsie tribe were murdered by the Hotoo tribe in the 1990s. We had 3 guides who survived that terrible ordeal as young children, by hiding in the swamps for up to 2 months. Their families were all murdered. at these sites and in some of the surrounding villages as well.

Here are skulls and bones of those killed in this church. Many of the skulls were cracked by machetes. It was very sobering, and horrifying at the same time, to be in this sacred place.

All of the clothing these people were wearing at the time they were killed, remains in the chapel area of the church where they were hiding. In the front of the chapel are a few caskets where many families buried all of their loved ones together.

This is the kitchen area of the church where some were hiding before they too were killed. It remains the same now as it was then.

Probably the saddest place for me was this "children's room" where the children hid and were savagely murdered too. Their blood remains on the back wall.

Our guide was a woman who lost her family in the raid. She works on the property as a gardener. She told us her own story and it was heartbreaking.

In the second church where about 5,000 were killed, the clothing lies on the benches. It feels like a holy place and is very moving to be there.

A brighter part of our journey to Rwanda was meeting a few of the local members. We enjoyed a lovely dinner with some of them and we are working hard (and praying a lot) for the church to be established there so that these wonderful people will receive the LIGHT of THE GOSPEL in their lives. When this happens, we know that more healing will take place and good will come to their lives. These are good, faithful people and we pray that one day they will feel the peace and comfort they desire.

Jeff was explaining to them about what it would take for the church to be legal in Rwanda and it was another very sobering moment because they are very anxious for that time to come.

We quickly learned to love these dear people in Kigali, Rwanda. We will never forget our experience there.

My first impression of Uganda was that I must be in Hawaii. Uganda is very green and beautiful and the earth is a deep, rich red clay color. Beautiful palm trees and plants growing everywhere are a lovely contrast to the red earth. The city looks new and modern from above but when you get on the ground, you realize that there is still a lot of poverty everywhere. Probably the worst thing I saw in Uganda was little "street children" - ages about 3-10 - dirty and sickly, walking the streets and begging for food or money. Sometimes an older sibling would be caring for the little ones. I was told that some of these children live on the streets alone but other mothers stand off to the side and teach their kids to beg. It made me feel physically ill to see this.

The above pictures are from our hotel - which was very lovely and modern.

When you get out of the city, you really notice the beautiful country and red earth.

This happens to be the site of the beginning of the Nile River. We have also seen the Nile in Egypt and it is muddy, brown and filthy.

Driving out to church in Jinja, we passed some of these sites.

This is a local HOTEL!
Maybe we should make a reservation for next time.

Lucky people in this nice neighborhood to have
Latreens.

Many people stop and sell something on the side of the road.

We enjoyed meeting this fun couple - the Scotts, who serve as the Sr. Office Couple in the Uganda Mission. This is their second mission in Africa. Elder Scott is the uncle of Haylee Neil - Spencer and Julie's friend. They helped us find our way around and we enjoyed several nice meals together.

More of the local sites....

This is our church in Jinja which we attended. It was small but nice. We met a lot of good people there like this little boy who wanted to sit on Jeff's lap and kept coming back to him and staring at him - holding up his arms to be picked up. Very sweet little guy.